MacFarlane didn’t speak up more directly about the incident in order to respect Barth’s privacy.

After a 2013 clip of Seth MacFarlane joking about Harvey Weinstein‘s reputation in Hollywood as an alleged sexual predator recently resurfaced, people questioned why MacFarlane had chosen to jest about the harassment without speaking up more directly.

Now actress Jessica Barth, who had told MacFarlane in 2011 about an “encounter” and “attempted advances” she experienced from Weinstein, is coming to her friend’s defense.

To the people slamming Seth for not “doing” anything, please STOP! He stood by me and respected my wishes that he not retaliate in any way. https://t.co/0mlKILP1Gi

“To everyone bad mouthing Seth, how about applauding him for being one of FEW men in Hollywood speaking out!” Barth wrote.

MacFarlane also released a statement on the incident:

“In 2011, my friend and colleague Jessica Barth, with whom I worked on the Ted films, confided in me regarding her encounter with Harvey Weinstein and his attempted advances. She has since courageously come forward to speak out. It was with this account in mind that, when I hosted the Oscars in 2013, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to take a hard swing in his direction. Make no mistake, this came from a place of loathing and anger. There is nothing more abhorrent and indefensible than abuse of power such as this. I respect and applaud my friend Jessica and those sharing their stories for their decision to come forward, and for being champions of the truth.”

Schwab Insights

Yahoo Finance

RSS Error: A feed could not be found at http://finance.yahoo.com/news/?format=rss. A feed with an invalid mime type may fall victim to this error, or SimplePie was unable to auto-discover it.. Use force_feed() if you are certain this URL is a real feed.